1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television program recording/reproducing device for recording a television program transmitted on a television broadcast signal, and/or reproducing the recorded television program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A television program recording/reproducing device is known, which records and stores, in a built-in recording medium such as a hard disk, television programs transmitted on television broadcast signals, and which enables optional selection and reproduction of the thus stored television programs. In recent years, the size of data which can be stored in a recording medium of a television program recording/reproducing device is significantly increasing to enable storage of mass television programs. This conversely places a burden on a user to search for and find a television program, which the user wishes to reproduce, from mass television programs stored in a recording medium.
In the case of digital television broadcast, this burden is considered to be mitigated by using EPG (Electric Program Guide). For the purpose of displaying an EPG screen, a digital television broadcast signal contains EPG data of a television program containing a program title, a description of the content of the program, broadcast date/time of the program, and so on. Thus, a television program recording/reproducing device for recording and/or reproducing a television program transmitted on a digital television broadcast signal acquires a program title and broadcast date/time of the television program from the EPG data at the time of recording the television program, and records and stores the program title and the broadcast date/time along with video data and audio data of the television program. When reproducing a recorded television program, the television program recording/reproducing device displays, on a display, a title list image (title list screen) formed of a list of the recorded titles of television programs so as to allow a user to select a title of the television program, which the user wishes to reproduce, from the title list image and to reproduce video data and audio data recorded corresponding to the selected title.
A conventional title list image displays titles of television programs each with broadcast date/time in order of broadcast date/time. Furthermore, not only the title list image, but also a cursor image for selecting a title of a television program from the titles in the title list image is displayed on the same screen, in which each time a cursor key of a remote control is pressed, the cursor image is moved one row to next row (i.e. to next title) in the rows of titles, namely moved on the titles from one title to the next title one by one. Note that if the number of television programs is too many to display the titles of all the television programs on one title list image, and when the cursor image moves to the lowermost (or uppermost) row in the title list image, the title list image is scrolled upward (or downward) to the next title list image.
For selecting a television program to be reproduced, a user searches for and finds a title of the television program, to be reproduced, from the title list image displaying titles of television programs sequentially in order of broadcast date/time, and operates a remote control to move the cursor onto the title of the television program to be reproduced. In this way, the conventional television program recording/reproducing device for recording and/or reproducing television programs transmitted on digital television broadcast signals mitigates the burden on the user at the time of reproducing a television program.
The following describes some known devices for selecting and reproducing desired television programs from recorded television programs. In one such known television program recording/reproducing device, a list of titles of the recorded television programs is displayed on a display, and a cursor is moved by a user to select a program title from the title list, whereby multiple television programs, each provided with the selected program title, are sequentially reproduced in a predetermined order for such television programs (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2002-230946).
In a further known television program recording/reproducing device for selecting and reproducing a desired television program, a list of program information of recorded television programs including their titles is displayed on a display, and a cursor is moved by a user to select a television program from the list, whereby detailed information of the selected television program is displayed on the display (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2002-369108). In a still further known television program recording/reproducing device, when recording a television program, a list of program information of television programs, each including the title and broadcast date/time, is displayed on a display sequentially in alphabetical order of the titles of the television programs, whereby when a cursor is moved by the user to select a television program from the list, the selected television program is recorded on the device (refer to e.g. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Hei 9-154078).
In the above conventional television program recording/reproducing devices, a cursor image is moved one row upward or downward to next row in the rows of titles, each time a user presses a cursor key of a remote control. Accordingly, the user is required to perform many cursor movement operations in order to move the cursor image to search for a desired title. Thus, when it is required to scroll a title list image upward (or downward) to the next title list image, the user has to move the cursor image to the lowermost (or uppermost) title, which requires many cursor movement operations by the user. As a result, much labor and time are required to search for a desired title, especially in the case of such scrolling. Even when the user finds the title of the desired television program in a title list image currently on the display, the user is still required to perform many cursor movement operations to move the cursor image onto the found title. Consequently, much labor and time are again required to select the desired title after finding it.
Thus, the conventional television program recording/reproducing devices require many cursor movement operations by a user to search for, find and select a desired television program to be reproduced, thereby causing much labor and time. This problem cannot be solved by using the technologies disclosed in the above patent publications.